City council set to clear derelict and disused boats from Riverside in Cambridge

Disused and derelict boats moored on the last unregulated stretch of the River Cam are set to be cleared by the city council.

The authority plans to introduce interim mooring regulations from October 1 at Riverside, which is lined with about 45 craft in varying states of repair, triggering concerns about safety, untidiness and obstruction of rowers.

Under the interim regulations, boaters would be required to live on their boats – something which is thought to apply to only half of the craft – and to produce a valid safety certificate.

Boats which did not meet standards or were not registered could then be removed by the city council.

However, the council is set to rule out banning of mooring altogether, and the eventual solution could be the construction of a pontoon at an approximate cost of £100,000, according to a report which will be considered by the community services committee.

The pontoon would be constructed where the river is wide enough, with an access ramp from the road, and could be fixed or floating.

However, since this would only allow space for eight or nine boats, further work is set to be carried out on alternative options too.

The council is yet to decide how moorings which might eventually be created at Riverside would be distributed.

The report proposes that boaters should be given the opportunity to join the full river moorings waiting list, in chronological order according to when they can prove they arrived at Riverside. However, it is yet to be decided whether they would be allowed to jump the queue of other people hoping to get a berth.

Cllr Carina O’Reilly, the executive councillor for public places, will sign off on the way forward when the committee meets next Friday.

She said: “I hope this will both address the residents’ concerns by bringing in regulation and beginning to clear the non-liveaboard craft, while also giving the existing moorers some security and being able to bring them in to the system as soon as possible.

“We don’t believe banning mooring immediately is the right way forward as for some long-term boaters moored at Riverside it could cause significant hardship. But we need to do more work on the best way of resolving the situation.”

Lynette Gilbert from the Riverside Area Residents’ Association, said the “number one thing” was to get rid of unoccupied boats, while Amy Tillson from the Camboaters association said she was pleased the threat of immediate eviction would be lifted.